Reading West: No Imports Will Win

Cllr Paul Gittings has said that Labour needed a local candidate to replace Martin Salter as the MP for Reading West.

He said "I believe that with 10 months to go to the likely date of a general election campaign, we need to run with a local candidate."

But instead of listening to Paul's advice, Reading Labour Party preferred to go with carpet-bagging London councillor Naz Sarkar.

Prediction: No "imported" candidate will win in Reading West. So that rules out Labour and the LibDems.

Brown: Words v. Actions

On 1 June 2009 Gordon Brown said “We need an open, transparent democracy."

So why has Brown:

1. ruled that the inquiry into the Iraq War should be held in private - then had to back track?

2. allowed the official release of MPs expenses to be so censored and edited that if we had to rely on them (rather than the Daily Telegraph's exposures) we would still not know of many of the worst abuses?

3. having called for an end to City greed, supported the £9.6million pay deal for the new boss of nationally owned Royal Bank of Scotland?

No doubt he will hang on to the latest date for a General Election, regardless of what may be in the country's interests.

Brown's Undemocratic Renewal

Gordon Brown has made much recently of wanting to lead a democratic renewal of poltics. But following his botched reshuffle one fifth of his Cabinet is now drawn from the unelected House of Lords.

The fact that Mr Brown had to call on so many members of the peerage to fill major Cabinet posts led to accusations that he had run out of talent in the Commons and was having to look further and further afield for people prepared to shore up the Government.

The new faces include a shock call-up for Glenys Kinnock, the wife of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who takes over as Europe minister, while Lord Adonis has been promoted to Transport Secretary.

Others unable to be questioned directly by MPs are Baroness Royall, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Malloch-Brown, a minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lord Drayson, the Business, Innovation and Skills Minister, and Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General.

Meanwhile Lord Mandelson, who was given a peerage and brought into the Cabinet last year, has been given a beefed-up Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Lord Mandelson also receives a new title, First Secretary of State, to emphasise his seniority in the Cabinet.

Smaller Government: Fewer Councillors

At Reading Council's Corporate Scrutiny Panel last night (3 June 2009) I gave notice of my request to table a report at the next meeting (8 July) seeking a review of the number of wards and councillors in Reading, and the frequency of elections.

In my view getting rid of 16 councillors (from 46 to 30) would save around £135,000 per year in allowances without in any way harming the efficiency of the council or injuring the democratic processes.

Reducing the cost of an election every year - we currently have council elections 3 years in 4 - would also save many thousands of pounds. Such a proposal would probably need the approval of the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Commission.

The 3 councillors per ward has been around at least since 1974 if not longer ago than than that. But with changed technology, emails & websites, these days many more residents can now access information directly from the council rather than their councillor.

However, all walks of life are facing greater pressures to become more efficient. Indeed council workers have been expected to do more with fewer staff every year, so I believe councillors can also do so.

Making this part of government smaller would not mean it would make RBC any less efficient.

It took only 6 votes ...

... to be selected as a Labour candidate in council elections in Reading.

Ward parties usually have to hold a meeting of at least 10 members, plus a grand overseer from the general committee. However, if 10 members didn't turn up, hustings could still be held and later endorsed by the GC (as long as the "right" candidate came through). It happened to me on more than one occassion.

For the selection as a prospective Member of Parliament you'd expect a more expansive process. But in truth, with falling membership numbers in Reading & District Labour Party, the successful candidate could be declared "selected" with as few as 50 votes at the party-wide hustings meeting (subject to the usual deals being done).

As an Independent (party-free!) if I decided to stand as a candidate in Reading West no such process applies.

But I guess I would need to:

1. get agreement from my family
2. test the idea amongst 50 or respected and trusted associates
3. conduct "primaries" this Autumn in each ward (including listing the other parties) to measure support

and then, and only then, decide whether to hand in my £500 and put myself forward to be included on the ballot paper.

All this is, of course, is based on a general election being held next spring - say May 2010. Some rumours suggest that Brown may call a snap election after the Autumn 2009 Party Conferences, but I doubt that.

Such a campaign would only be undertaken by Reading West residents - no bussing people in from Basingstoke, Slough or Oxford - and paid for by individual donations of a maximum of £10 from Reading West voters: no business or other organisation donations would be accepted.

I think there is the beginning of a plan ...

New Civic Offices: Satellite Offices Now Being Considered

THE EVER LENGTHENING SAGA around the quest to find new council offices has taken a new turn, with officers now being told to investigate "satellite offices" as part of a new solution.

The council had said they were going to press ahead with their original plans for a single custom-designed new headquarters on Hosier Street in St Mary's Butts, while recently conceding that alternatives would be considered.

I have campaigned to overturn the all-party support for a bespoke new building, so I welcome this new option. I don't think there is any public appetite for a single new building costing more than £50million. I do believe that a creative use of the existing Town Hall and existing emprty office space in the town centre would be a more reasonable approach.

The NHS are moving into the Broad Street Mall, so could the council. The empty Woolworths store would also be a perfect customer service centre. Back office work could easily be undertaken effectively at other locations, either around the town centre, which would also support the town centre economy, or on the outskirts such as Green Park.

There is no doubt the sooner staff can be moved out of the current civic offices the better, so I was surprised to learn that no date has been set for another meeting of the Civic Board responsibe for this. I am beginning to suspect that having already spent £3.7million on this project, some people may be getting cold feet over making a decision.

So Farewell Then Mick Spreader

In Memoriam
MICK SPREADER

So. Farewell then
Mick Spreader
Mystery Satirist.

It would seem that
You are to leave for good.

But are you?

We have been
Hoaxed before.

So why not now?

But then. Does
Anyone ever really leave?

This is the enigma.